Instead of posting in the show us your motors thread, I thought I'd document my Evo as it goes along. I'll start out at the beginning.
Back in February:
Thanks to Tom for sending me the photo.
Currently on the ramps at Auto Toque having a full service ready for me picking it up on Saturday.
I've already been shopping:
I also have a fascia adaptor, but we all know what one looks like so I won't bother taking any pics *****il it's fitted).
Ignore the mess on my kitchen table.
I just narrowly missed out on some Focal speakers on eBay, so back to the drawing board on that front. I did enjoy the Audison's I had in my S2000 so may order a set for the Evo.
No major plans so far, most likely a stage 1, Ohlins, uprated brakes and that's it.
More pics over the next week as and when I manage to take some.
Then later on in the month before I poicked it up, Auto Torque let me know that the AYC pump was knackered so they replaced it.
As above, AT have replaced the AYC pump due to a small leak. Great service.
Old vs new pump.
End of February I finally picked her up:
Loving driving it, I forgot how fun they are. The attention it's getting is unbelievable. People with complete shock and awe faces.
Bought some braided lines and a HKS intake. Fitted the intake in April.
Not a hard job, but it could have been a lot easier had I done one before. It sounds so much better now, absolutely love it. Next step is getting the decat on.
There's some rusty bolts and what not in the engine bay so I'll slowly replace/clean up as needed.
While I was under the bonnet, I took a picture of the cabling the ICE shop put in for powering the amp.
Then it went to Norris Designs to get a map and the decat fitted along with supporting mods.
Just back from Norris Designs. I completely misjudged the journey and got there at 8am, 30 minutes early, so I had to sat around for a bit. The car then went into the garage and had the fuel pump, decat and 3 port boost solenoid fitted, then at about 11 it went on the dyno. Simon then took it on the road and finished off the map, unfortunately there was some bad news, in that the dyno broke so he was unable to give me any figures. That said, there was good news, nothing wrong with the car and Simon assured me the map is good and safe, it's holding 1.6 bar right towards the end of the rev range when it drops slightly to about 1.5
I'm to go back in when he's got the dyno fixed for a power run FOC, although I am not that really bothered. I went down this morning with mixed feelings, mainly due to the fact that the car to me felt quick enough as it was. It pulled strongly till around 6500 rpm where it would noticeably drop in power towards the limiter. There's more than enough torque in the next gear to change at 6500 so that's what I had been doing. My bum dyno feeling that prior to me getting it mapped it felt about as quick as my last one after it was mapped.
Well, the drive home has opened my eyes a little bit, because quite frankly it's absolutely brutal now. My neck is hurting as I've been giving it some stick and the new added noise courtesy of the decat combined with the power delivery had me in stitches. It's a total weapon now so I am very happy I went down! Once boost comes on between 3-4k it really doesn't tail off till the limiter, I've gone from short shifting a little to having to keep and eye on the rev counter to avoid hitting the limiter. I thought my last Evo was quick but this is something different.
Before my visit to Spa I bought some mods.
Girodisc 2 piece front discs.
OEM replacement rear discs.
Pagid RS15 pads.
Hose Technik Braided Hoses to go on.
RBF600 fluid.
Went to Spa:
I've been away this past week at Spa and the 'Ring with some fellow petrolheads. I've had an amazing albeit expensive time! It all started off when I couldn't get the new rear pads into the calipers without them binding so I had to take a mm off one of the pads.
I then turned up at the tyre shop to have new AD08R's on as I knew that the current PS3's wouldn't last on track. However it turns out that my Speedline's are 18 inch wheels and not 17 so I'd ordered in the wrong size. Doh! For some unknown reason I decided to fit some Goodyear Eagle F1A3 to the car. They couldn't be as bas as the F1A2 I thought. Well, I was wrong, they're just as bad. Why on earth people fit such tyres to an Evo is completely beyond me, they are 'okay' as a road tyre, with limited feedback through the steering, noticeably worse than the PS3's that come off! Then there's the whole jelly/floaty feeling that you get. Must just be the release agent I thought. I did have a chance of fitting some Cup 2's over in Holland and in hindsight that was the much better option. But with many miles to cover, making a detour to Holland wasn't something I was up for.
The first couple of sessions at Spa were okay, but I could really feel that the tyres were not made for spirited driving! They didn't feel great on the way over and they literally fell apart after a few sessions. Would absolutely not recommend if you drive quickly. Grip is ok but once they get hot they fall of a cliff. Feedback and feel is pretty wooly.
Yes that is wire you can see. There was evidence of this on the other tyres as well. On track they really were poor and couldn't do much more than one lap before going even more jelly like. Horrid things, never again on a sports car!
Luckily for me there was a lad with our group who had a Evo VI RS with a spare set of wheels/tyres, so on these went. They were part worn Federal RS-R's on and everything was much improved immediately. Steering feel, feedback, grip and the ability to stand up to a hammering. Not to mention I could now pull away from my mates who previously stuck with me easily. The RS-R's were Evo 6 size as well so not as wide as the F1A3.
I quite like the look of the car with white TD's on.
I took the car to the 'Ring yesterday and put on a set of Michelin Cup 2's and they really are leagues ahead of anything I have tried in the road and initial impression on the track is extremely positive. I was keeping with some impressive machinery on the GP circuit. I think I prefer them to AD08R so far.
Very impressed with them. The car is now at the stage where the body roll is limiting grip so need to sort some roll bars and Ohlins out.
If you are a casual driver who does the occasional back road blast and you pootle at a track then give the F1A3 a try. But if you like drive your Evo like an Evo should be driven, and appreciate a tyre that not only gives much better feel and feedback along with grip then give them a miss. A £500+ mistake I'll not be making again!
I've also seen Federal RS-R's at £80 a corner in 18's which is madness!
I've got some video's that I'll get uploaded over the next few days. But for now here's some pics from Spa, 'Ring ones will follow.
Unfortunately the car developed a boost issue, luckily for me it was the very final time out at the 'Ring and is still drivable home. Hoses seem fine so perhaps an actuator issue, will find out next week as the car is not at Performance Autoworks.
9 minute lap with two Integra's.
Straight after the ring trip I dropped it off at Performance Autoworks, ahd the following done:
Fit the following:
The ride on the Ohlins is, as you'd expect, superb. A bit firmer than the standard B4's however the quality of the ride feels better, straight away I can feel it's more planted and roll has been drastically reduced. I haven't pushed the car properly on the road as it's been busy on the way back but it does feel a little understeery, might be as I can't really push it hard enough for the AYC to make a difference. I'll have to see how it is over the next few weeks or maybe see if there's a trackday coming up as I have a few weeks off work between contracts.
I don't know what geo settings Performance Autoworks have dialled in but the car feels a lot more pointy and more eager to turn in. Perhaps it's a combination of the Ohlins, new rear ARB and geo, I don't know, but it's much nicer. A few mm has me changing lanes now.
The pads are superb, cold bite is good and they do slow the car down a lot as I found out as I approached roundabout at the end of the A417 where it goes from two lanes into one. I came round the corner and the traffic was backed right up so I had to brake quite firmly. Very impressed with them. They are also no where near as noisy as I thought they'd be, no more than any other uprated pad that I've tried. The ducts aren't from the front of the car which would be most ideal, but that would involve removing some of the undertray which I wasn't keen on doing, so it's actually getting air from the little vanes on the undertray which it has out of the factory. Nice supply of cool air from down there which should help cooling the brakes down.
Onto this past week and I took it to Croft.
Went to Croft with the lads from HOT/LOT. It's a good 4-5 hours from home so I took the Thursday off and stayed the night near the circuit. Cue obligatory curry & beers.
I've not done Croft before, so I was looking forward to it and trying the new pads and suspension set up. The dampers were initially a little too soft so I tightened them up a little, and then a little more. It much improved things however I forgot to set them back so the drive home was a little more uncomfortable than I'd wanted!
The car was great on track, extremely happy with the setup and I had no issues with brakes except they would go off a little after 6-7 laps. I got into the 1m41's and I was trying to get sub 1m40 however in my hunt to get that I completely overcooked the penultimate corner and ended up with two wheels on the grass. Apart from two oversteer moments on cold tyres this was the only incident. I put the grass down to tyres that were too hot. I'd heard a noise in the wheels arch so did a cool down lap and came in to be greeted by this:
Whoops. I guess I better get a second set of wheels with track tyres on and put some normal road tyres on for everything else. I got two new ditch finders fitted in Darlington to get me home and I'm currently at the tyre shop getting my old Pilot Sport 3's fitted to see me out for now. Plenty of tread on them and I've no track time till October currently.
Plans now are Defi gauges and and anti oil surge kit from Ross Sport, plus new wheels/tyres. Oh, some more negative camber as well!
New (old) Pilot Sport 3's fitted, the two ditch finders binned, car cleaned and a visit to Des's for a brew.
** Can you resize images over 1200px, or put them in spoiler tags please? Thanks - EVH **
Back in February:
Thanks to Tom for sending me the photo.
Currently on the ramps at Auto Toque having a full service ready for me picking it up on Saturday.
I've already been shopping:
I also have a fascia adaptor, but we all know what one looks like so I won't bother taking any pics *****il it's fitted).
Ignore the mess on my kitchen table.
I just narrowly missed out on some Focal speakers on eBay, so back to the drawing board on that front. I did enjoy the Audison's I had in my S2000 so may order a set for the Evo.
No major plans so far, most likely a stage 1, Ohlins, uprated brakes and that's it.
More pics over the next week as and when I manage to take some.
Then later on in the month before I poicked it up, Auto Torque let me know that the AYC pump was knackered so they replaced it.
As above, AT have replaced the AYC pump due to a small leak. Great service.
Old vs new pump.
Loving driving it, I forgot how fun they are. The attention it's getting is unbelievable. People with complete shock and awe faces.
Bought some braided lines and a HKS intake. Fitted the intake in April.
Not a hard job, but it could have been a lot easier had I done one before. It sounds so much better now, absolutely love it. Next step is getting the decat on.
There's some rusty bolts and what not in the engine bay so I'll slowly replace/clean up as needed.
While I was under the bonnet, I took a picture of the cabling the ICE shop put in for powering the amp.
Then it went to Norris Designs to get a map and the decat fitted along with supporting mods.
Just back from Norris Designs. I completely misjudged the journey and got there at 8am, 30 minutes early, so I had to sat around for a bit. The car then went into the garage and had the fuel pump, decat and 3 port boost solenoid fitted, then at about 11 it went on the dyno. Simon then took it on the road and finished off the map, unfortunately there was some bad news, in that the dyno broke so he was unable to give me any figures. That said, there was good news, nothing wrong with the car and Simon assured me the map is good and safe, it's holding 1.6 bar right towards the end of the rev range when it drops slightly to about 1.5
I'm to go back in when he's got the dyno fixed for a power run FOC, although I am not that really bothered. I went down this morning with mixed feelings, mainly due to the fact that the car to me felt quick enough as it was. It pulled strongly till around 6500 rpm where it would noticeably drop in power towards the limiter. There's more than enough torque in the next gear to change at 6500 so that's what I had been doing. My bum dyno feeling that prior to me getting it mapped it felt about as quick as my last one after it was mapped.
Well, the drive home has opened my eyes a little bit, because quite frankly it's absolutely brutal now. My neck is hurting as I've been giving it some stick and the new added noise courtesy of the decat combined with the power delivery had me in stitches. It's a total weapon now so I am very happy I went down! Once boost comes on between 3-4k it really doesn't tail off till the limiter, I've gone from short shifting a little to having to keep and eye on the rev counter to avoid hitting the limiter. I thought my last Evo was quick but this is something different.
Before my visit to Spa I bought some mods.
Girodisc 2 piece front discs.
OEM replacement rear discs.
Pagid RS15 pads.
Hose Technik Braided Hoses to go on.
RBF600 fluid.
Went to Spa:
I've been away this past week at Spa and the 'Ring with some fellow petrolheads. I've had an amazing albeit expensive time! It all started off when I couldn't get the new rear pads into the calipers without them binding so I had to take a mm off one of the pads.
I then turned up at the tyre shop to have new AD08R's on as I knew that the current PS3's wouldn't last on track. However it turns out that my Speedline's are 18 inch wheels and not 17 so I'd ordered in the wrong size. Doh! For some unknown reason I decided to fit some Goodyear Eagle F1A3 to the car. They couldn't be as bas as the F1A2 I thought. Well, I was wrong, they're just as bad. Why on earth people fit such tyres to an Evo is completely beyond me, they are 'okay' as a road tyre, with limited feedback through the steering, noticeably worse than the PS3's that come off! Then there's the whole jelly/floaty feeling that you get. Must just be the release agent I thought. I did have a chance of fitting some Cup 2's over in Holland and in hindsight that was the much better option. But with many miles to cover, making a detour to Holland wasn't something I was up for.
The first couple of sessions at Spa were okay, but I could really feel that the tyres were not made for spirited driving! They didn't feel great on the way over and they literally fell apart after a few sessions. Would absolutely not recommend if you drive quickly. Grip is ok but once they get hot they fall of a cliff. Feedback and feel is pretty wooly.
Yes that is wire you can see. There was evidence of this on the other tyres as well. On track they really were poor and couldn't do much more than one lap before going even more jelly like. Horrid things, never again on a sports car!
Luckily for me there was a lad with our group who had a Evo VI RS with a spare set of wheels/tyres, so on these went. They were part worn Federal RS-R's on and everything was much improved immediately. Steering feel, feedback, grip and the ability to stand up to a hammering. Not to mention I could now pull away from my mates who previously stuck with me easily. The RS-R's were Evo 6 size as well so not as wide as the F1A3.
I quite like the look of the car with white TD's on.
I took the car to the 'Ring yesterday and put on a set of Michelin Cup 2's and they really are leagues ahead of anything I have tried in the road and initial impression on the track is extremely positive. I was keeping with some impressive machinery on the GP circuit. I think I prefer them to AD08R so far.
Very impressed with them. The car is now at the stage where the body roll is limiting grip so need to sort some roll bars and Ohlins out.
If you are a casual driver who does the occasional back road blast and you pootle at a track then give the F1A3 a try. But if you like drive your Evo like an Evo should be driven, and appreciate a tyre that not only gives much better feel and feedback along with grip then give them a miss. A £500+ mistake I'll not be making again!
I've also seen Federal RS-R's at £80 a corner in 18's which is madness!
I've got some video's that I'll get uploaded over the next few days. But for now here's some pics from Spa, 'Ring ones will follow.
Unfortunately the car developed a boost issue, luckily for me it was the very final time out at the 'Ring and is still drivable home. Hoses seem fine so perhaps an actuator issue, will find out next week as the car is not at Performance Autoworks.
9 minute lap with two Integra's.
Straight after the ring trip I dropped it off at Performance Autoworks, ahd the following done:
- Oil change.
- Bypass faulty SAS valve.
- Replace caliper seals, as well as a rear piston.
Fit the following:
- Ohlins & geo setup.
- SuperPro rear ARB.
- Replace Girodisc rings.
- Carbotech XP10 pads front.
- New Castrol fluid.
- Brake ducting.
The ride on the Ohlins is, as you'd expect, superb. A bit firmer than the standard B4's however the quality of the ride feels better, straight away I can feel it's more planted and roll has been drastically reduced. I haven't pushed the car properly on the road as it's been busy on the way back but it does feel a little understeery, might be as I can't really push it hard enough for the AYC to make a difference. I'll have to see how it is over the next few weeks or maybe see if there's a trackday coming up as I have a few weeks off work between contracts.
I don't know what geo settings Performance Autoworks have dialled in but the car feels a lot more pointy and more eager to turn in. Perhaps it's a combination of the Ohlins, new rear ARB and geo, I don't know, but it's much nicer. A few mm has me changing lanes now.
The pads are superb, cold bite is good and they do slow the car down a lot as I found out as I approached roundabout at the end of the A417 where it goes from two lanes into one. I came round the corner and the traffic was backed right up so I had to brake quite firmly. Very impressed with them. They are also no where near as noisy as I thought they'd be, no more than any other uprated pad that I've tried. The ducts aren't from the front of the car which would be most ideal, but that would involve removing some of the undertray which I wasn't keen on doing, so it's actually getting air from the little vanes on the undertray which it has out of the factory. Nice supply of cool air from down there which should help cooling the brakes down.
Onto this past week and I took it to Croft.
Went to Croft with the lads from HOT/LOT. It's a good 4-5 hours from home so I took the Thursday off and stayed the night near the circuit. Cue obligatory curry & beers.
I've not done Croft before, so I was looking forward to it and trying the new pads and suspension set up. The dampers were initially a little too soft so I tightened them up a little, and then a little more. It much improved things however I forgot to set them back so the drive home was a little more uncomfortable than I'd wanted!
The car was great on track, extremely happy with the setup and I had no issues with brakes except they would go off a little after 6-7 laps. I got into the 1m41's and I was trying to get sub 1m40 however in my hunt to get that I completely overcooked the penultimate corner and ended up with two wheels on the grass. Apart from two oversteer moments on cold tyres this was the only incident. I put the grass down to tyres that were too hot. I'd heard a noise in the wheels arch so did a cool down lap and came in to be greeted by this:
Plans now are Defi gauges and and anti oil surge kit from Ross Sport, plus new wheels/tyres. Oh, some more negative camber as well!
New (old) Pilot Sport 3's fitted, the two ditch finders binned, car cleaned and a visit to Des's for a brew.
** Can you resize images over 1200px, or put them in spoiler tags please? Thanks - EVH **
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